Comments on others' blogs

Angelina:
I think cheerleading is a great sport. I have friends that are great cheerleaders. It's really fun to watch. Cheerleaders are very talented, doing their flips and everything.
See Angelina's blog about cheerwiz.

Brain T:
Aerobatics certainly seems like a fun and exciting sport. I never really knew about it until I saw Brian's blog. On Wikipedia, it says "aerobatics is the demonstration of flying maneuvers for recreation or entertainment."
See some neat videos of aerobatics on Brian's blog.

Renzo:
I think it's really cool how someone was able to create and "emotional map" by using the feelings of volunteers. That's a very creative project to work on.
Read more on Renzo's blog.

Will C:
I never heard of Warped Tour before, so I looked on wikipedia to find out what it is. It says it's a "a touring music and extreme sports festival." Sounds interesting. On Will's blog it lists a large number of blands that will play this year. I don't think I've ever heard of any of them before, but they might be really good.
I got a movie off of youtube.com of A Static Lullaby singing "Hang 'Em High". It's not really my type of music, but some of you might like it.
See more bands on Will's blog.

Vika:
I think Vika's blog about racims is really interesting because it is such a reality. As Vika said, "everyone has to deal with racism." Also, as posted on her blog, it says that racism is "hatred or intolerance of another race or other races." I agree that racism is hatred. It may also be intolerance, but racism is also something that shouldn't be tolerated itself.
Here's a thought-provoking podcast on racism.
Read more about Racism on Vika's blog.

Paper Bags podcast - Darren

I also randomly picked Darren's podcast to listen to, and I also think that it was very well done. Yeah, his topic is paper bags, but he really made that topic interesting and fun to learn about. It was a great topic to choose because it's something we're all familiar with, but it's also something we pay no attention to whatsoever. He might have picked the topic randomly because he didn't have anything else to write about, but it certainly doesn't seem that way. I really like the way he organized his podcast. He also recorded himself as if he was talking to a friend. It was very friendly and fun to listen to. Also, the music in the background made it more fun to listen to. It went well with the speed at which he talked. I like the fact that he added interviews in his podcast as well. It was well-organized and it seemed like he really planned his podcast out. It sounds like it took some preparation, especially with the interviews. It doesn't sound like something that was just thrown together.

Halo 3 podcast- Julian

I listened to Julian's podcast. I think it's great. I really am not familiar with Halo games or any video games really, but I picked his podcast randomly to listen to and I'm glad I did. Julian's podcast is really fun to listen to because he makes it fun. He really grabs the listeners' attention and makes them want to listen more and more. He rivets their attention by making his voice change voice levels to make it a lot more suspenseful. He also makes it so much like a radio station. He makes it a friendly podcast because he talks as if he's talking to a friend. He also added music in the background to make it even more exciting. I thought the song choice was also very relative to the game Halo 3 and it also matched his personality I think. I mean it sounded really well with the way he was talking and it went well with the topic he did his podcast on which was Halo 3.

De La Hoya vs Mayweather

On May 5, 2007 there was a boxing fight between Oscar De la Hoya (Golden Boy) and Floyd Mayweather (Pretty Boy). Everyone was there. It was a huge fight. The fight took place at a MGM arena in Las Vegas. Many thought that De La Hoya would be beaten by Mayweather because he's older, so they thought that he would tire out in the later rounds. Mayweather himself was trying to win with the assumption that he would tire out at the end. Throughout the match, Mayweather practically stood there waiting for De La Hoya to come at him. Therefore, De La Hoya was the one pressing the fight. If he didn't keep walking forward and press the fight, there would have been no boxing match (as he later told a reporter in a brief interview right after the fight). Although De La Hoya kept pressing the fight and threw a huge amount of punches, only about half of them actually landed. On the other hand, Mayweather threw way fewer punches, but landed way more of them than De La Hoya. Mayweather's punches were way more accurate. De La Hoya is famous for his left jab, but he only used it once and when he used it, it was his best punch of the night. the question is: why didn't he use it more? De La Hoya said that for some reason it wasn't the night of the left jab. He doesn't know why he stopped using it. One judge said that De La Hoya won 115 to 113, but another judge said that Mayweather one. Mayweather ended up winning. Some people say that De La Hoya should have won because he pressed the fight, but others totally disagree and are so sure that Mayweather won because his punches were so much more accurate than De La Hoya's. It was kind of sad because it was Cinco de Mayo and De La Hoya was Mexican American and he lost.
My familiy and I watched the fight on TV. We have Dish Network and we had to order it. It cost almost $60. I guess it was worth it. It was the only boxing match that I ever watched from beginning to end and actually had some interest in it. I was surprised at how long the boxing match was. It was only maybe half an hour, but it was a big fight, so I guess it was worth it. Plus, it gave me something to blog about today.

Here's a 3 minute movie i found on Youtube that shows the fight in Round 5.

del.icio.us

What is the webpage / service?
1) It gives viewers a whole list of other search engines that we might not already know about. There's over 100 of them.
2) This webpage is motivational and inspirational quotes and information from Steve Jobs.
3) This webpage is all about the NBA. It gives all kinds of information about the NBA, especially about the playoffs, since they're taking place now.

How will it help someone?
1) It gives over 100 search engines. They're great alternatives to google and other search engines that we use all the time.
2) Since it really does have inspirational sayings, it can help someone get motivated and isnpired to do something. ALso, it has great quotes.
3) There are plenty of basketball fans in this world, so this can give them information, statistics, and everything else.

Are there any other pages like it? Is this a new idea? An old idea that has been brought to the web for the first time?
1) I think it's a new idea that has been brought to the web for the first time because there's no other web page like it. People must have known about these search engines, well at least some people, but someone actually took the intiative to put them all on this website.
2) This is a new idea that Steve Jobs has made to help people out. I 've never seen such an inspirational webpage before.
3) This is an old idea. There's other webpages like it. There's ESPN and msn that has basketball info too.

How could this help you?
1) This can help me whenever I have to do research for projects or just find any type of information. I can use a search engine that specializes in whatever I'm looking for.
2) This can help me if I'm trying to write some kind of letter or paper on motivation. It can also help me get motivated for things.
3) Whenever I need stats on a certain player or team, I can go to this webpage.

How did you tag this page and why?
I clicked the tag button, typed in a few tags, and saved it because I thought it could really help me out in things, such as schoolwork and also be a source for me to just go online and be interested in reading.

Podcast Blog

The podcast I subscribed to was Learn Spanish with Coffee Break Spanish. The reason why I chose this podcast was because I'm taking Spanish right now and maybe I could find this podcast interesting and very helpful. The reviews are really good and give it high rates. Its average rating is 4 1/2 stars. I'm not having trouble in Spanish right now, but maybe this podcast will be able to ease my studying, and will be a more convenient way for me to study Spanish. According to one review, it "makes learning Spanish very easy. It is very entertaining as well." This is why I subscribed to this podcast. Even though I'm already taking a Spanish class, hopefully this will improve my Spanish-speaking fluency or widen my Spanish vocabulary and hopefully give me an advantage for my Spanish class.

After listening to it, I find it pretty easy. It has different lessons, but I think I already now what they're teaching. However, actually practicing listening to spanish speakers will definitely help me in the real world when I actually try to speak to Spanish speakers. Therefore, I really feel that this podcast is going to benefit me in a big way.

Family Blog #2

My family loves to laugh. What makes my familiy a family is the fact that we all love each other no matter what. However, getting on each other's nerves for fun sometimes is also a characteristic of our family (well at least for my siblings and I). My familiy loves to go on trips together. For example, we took a road trip down to Utah over this past Spring Break. Also, we're always there for each other in times of need. When someone needs help or is feeling kind of down we always try to help each other out and make each other feel better. My familiy and I are active Mormons, so our religion is also a big part of our lives. We go to church every Sunday. My brother and I also go to seminary every weekday morning at 6am. My sister will start going when she gets to high school. My parents have brought my siblings and I up with love and good morals.

Earth Day

Earth day is somewhat a holiday. It's not celebrated as much, and often people don't even know when Earth Day is. For instance, I only remember celebrating Earth Day in elementary school in like the 4th grade or something. Earth Day is a time to celebrate our environmental improvements and make plans to make our planet an even better place to live in. For example, plant flowers, decrease pollution, or pick up litter. Earth Day is on April 22.

Here's a great video found from youtube.com on what earth day is and how we affect the environmental state of our world. This video includes great pictures of why protecting the environment is so important. It makes us realize that Earth Day should be celebrated with more determination and focus on making our environment a better place to live in.

Copyright

What is copyright?

Copyright is a law that protects works from being used without the permission of the author, artist, etc.

Why do we have copyrighting?

We have copyrighting because some people use information unfairly because they give no credit to the one who actually thought of the info or idea that you’re using; also, people use the information to make a profit and sometimes decrease the profit of the actual owner of the information. You can’t take credit for other’s work.

What does copyright law protect?
The copyright law protects the ownership and accreditation of people who publish their work in some way.

Why are there copyright laws?
There are copyright laws to give fairness to all who participate in the digital world.

What is fair use?
Fair use limits the amount of use of others’ work.

Does fair use completely cover whatever she wants to do or are there limits to what is fair?
Fair use limits the amount of things that are fair. For example, it’s fair to use other’s work for an educational purpose. However, it is not considered fair to use someone else’s work and gain a profit from it without permission.

Why can’t copyrighted materials be put on a school website?
Copyrighted materials can’t be put on a school website because it’s now being shared with the public and not just your school.

How much stuff on the web is copyrighted?
Almost everything on the web is copyrighted. Even though it might not say it is, it still can be copyrighted.

What is Creative Commons? What does it mean?
Creative Commons is a spectrum showing the difference between No rights reserved, public domain, and copyright. It means the level of reserved rights that a work has.

Do you think the following songs are targeted at different audiences?
Yes, I think these songs are targeted at different audiences. I think the songs target adult audiences.

Did Harrison infringe on the Chiffon's hit? You be the judge. Listen to the two samples at the following link. How would you rule this?
I don’t think Harrison totally infringed on the Chiffon’s hit. They came up with their own song and it might be similar, but they’re two separate and different songs.

Rap or Rock? Can you tell the difference? Go to the following website to play clips of Vanilla Ice and Queen / David Bowie?
Vanilla Ice is rap and Queen is rock.

Summary~
I think that copyright is very essential to the fairness and use of information from the internet and other media forms. Copyrighting is needed because people do care about not getting credit for things that they should get credit for. It's not fair to use others' work and use it as your own.
Copyright is a law that satisfies these needs, and though most people don't care or give two cents about it, it's really a big deal. Piracy happens all the times. People gain and use works illegal or in an unfair way all the time. That's why copyrighting is significant in today's media.

Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy logic is a computerized way to think like a human. Fuzzy logic has some advantages compared to a binary system and a microprocessor. Fuzzy logic deals with the gray areas whereas binary systems deal with black and white and a microprocessor deals with off or on. Fuzzy logic gives reasoning to things that are not clearly understood or things that don't have a clear answer. Another advantage is that Fuzzy logic is that they're also cheaper to produce.

Fuzzy logic seems like it's a very informational and useful in things that don't have a really clear answer. Unfortunately, i don't think it really is effective or significant in my own life. I don't really care about things that aren't clearly answered. To me, I just think if a light is on, it's on. If a light is off, it's off. I personally don't care how dim the light is and what percentage of it is on or off. I guess fuzzy logic has a greater effect on the world as a whole. Scientists, researchers, and others always do things so precisely that they discover many things through fuzzy logic. It's what they're willing to do. As for myself, I don't really care about those types of things. Maybe I will if it involves my occupation when I grow up, but for right now, it doesn't mean much to me.

Family Circle

What's your idea of what a family can be?
A family can be a group of people that deeply care about each other.

Who is in your family circle?
My family includes my immediate family and other relatives and my family's family friends.

What is your family like?
My family is very loving and caring and a ton of fun. We have our best and happiest memories with each other. Sometimes we get on each other's nerves. My siblings and I often irritate each other on purpose, but we still love each other. We also have hectic schedules, so we always try to find time to have fun together. My family is very fun and we love to laugh and take family trips.

Does your family circle involve a variety of people?
My family circle does involve a variety of people. Racially, my family has a huge variety; there's many different races and cultures included. Also, age wise, we range from a newborn to a wise woman in her late 70s. My family circle also includes different-natured people. Some are very serious and some are very laid-back. Some are obsessed with school, some are obsessed with video games.

Different generations?
I would say my family includes 4 generations. We range from a newborn to a grandma in her 70s.

Explain the following quote:
"Families evolve from a patchwork of possibilities"
I think this quote means that families have can be full of people that are totally the opposite, but it won't matter. There's the possibility of having funny people or having more serious people. Or, families can include people who are exactly alike. However, with all their similiarities or differences, everyone gets along fine and become what's called a FAMILY.

what I learned

There were many presentations about things that I've never heard of before. For example, I learned about a video game called Counterstrike. I have never heard of it before, so I obviously learned about its existence. It's also a video game with gun use and therefore with some violence. With the surveys taken by the partners, I learned that the game is really supposed to be for teens because of the violence.

Watching the Projects

I really enjoyed everyone's projects that I saw. Seeing all the different formats and different ways they presented their projects was very interesting. They ranged from podcasts to DVDs. I was pleased and satisfied with mine and Jake's project. Our presentation was about 13 minutes long, but I felt that the reason why people might have enjoyed our presentation was because they were interested in the topic and the different opinions of our peers. Therefore, I'm also glad we chose abortion as out controversial topic.

Final- Abortion

Working on the final outcome of our project was somewhat difficult. It shouldn't have been, but as I was working my work got erased 3 times before I was able to save it on my USB with the edited recordings. My computer was having trouble. Also, I couldn't get iTunes working on audacity to add in music and my windows media player wasn't working well either. Therefore, I decided to use Gcast to record me playing the piano. It's probably not how music is usually put onto audacity, but it certainly worked. Also, to burn the recording on a CD, I was going to use my laptop. However, the internet wasn't working on my laptop and therefore I couldn't download audacity on it. (I've been working with audacity on my PC). Since I couldn't download audacity, I wasn't able to open up the file for my project to burn it on the CD. All in all though, I'm happy with the outcome of our hard work on our project.

Survey Questions

ABORTION

• What do you know about abortion?
  

• Is it legal in every state?

• What age requirements should there be?

• First of all, should abortion be allowed?

• Should the patient be forced to see the sonogram of their baby?

• Should parents of a pregnant minor be notified by the law?
  

• Should the parent of the pregnant woman wanting to have an abortion have the last say in the abortion decision?

• How much does an abortion cost? Or, how much do you think it costs?

• Should abortion be charged as murder?

• What is required to have an abortion in California?

• What rights should women have over their bodies?

• What trimester (months) do you think it would be okay to have an abortion?
  

• All in all, do you think the United States should rethink the abortion requirements?
  

Contention with Abortion - 3rd

The contention of abortion lies in the three questions we will ask our peers in our interviews:

• First of all, should abortion be allowed?
  
• Should the patient be forced to see the sonogram of their baby?
• Should parents be notified by law about their child's abortion?

People will have their own arguments according their own thoughts and feeling on the issue of abortion. Also, some people could have past experiences or other relations to the abortion topic. This could cause harsh or offensive feelings towards the issue, which we would like to avoid because it does cause some friction, but could very well happen, and we will try to be prepared to confront those people and make sure we don't offend them in any way. We think people will view abortion from all different points. It's a controversial topic in many ways and there could be many solutions to the different arguments and problems people might have with abortions.

Writing the Treatment - 2nd

I thought the treatment was going to be difficult to write at first, but it turned out to be a pretty easy task. It actually helped Jake and I because it made us really think about our topic (abortion) and how we will carry out the presentation process. We were able to really plan out and organize our project and how we will carry out our plans for the interviewing process and such. We figured out what the three main questions we want to ask in our interviews: should abrotion be allowed? should the patient be forced to see the sonogram of their baby before the abortion is done? Do the parents have to be notified of their child's abortion? We also made it clear what our main objective was, which was to do thorough research and gain as much opinion from our peers as possible, while being as unbiased as we possibly can. We want to give as much information to the people through statistics and interviews. We want to make the audience of our presentation to think and ponder about what their own opinion of abortion is.

Research on Abortion

Over the weekend, I did some research on abortion. First of all, abortion is a medical operation to end a pregnancy so that the baby is not born alive. Medically speaking, it is the expulsion of the products of conception before the embryo or fetus is viable. In fact, any interruption of human pregnancy purposely done prior to the 28th week is known as an abortion.

Here are some statistics: From 1973- 1996 the abortion rate has risen from 744,600 to 1,400,000. Its highest yearly rate in that range of time is when it reached 1,608,600 in 1990. As you can see from these plain facts, abortion does take a toll on us. Imagine if there weren’t any abortions in those years, and think about how many babies could have been born, could have lived, and could have grown. Think how much larger the population would be. All those abortions in those past years also affect today’s time because our population today would also be much greater if all those many people weren’t aborted.

To find our more about my topic, I will continue to search the internet for information. Also, when I get a video camera, I will be able to interview some of our peers and ask them for their views on abortion. It’d be interesting to see the different variety of replies I’ll get and how much people are interested in the topic.

Difficulties with Abortion

The difficulties we might have with abortion might include the fact that it's a very controversial issue. People might not feel comfortable about speaking about the issue or it could be offensive to some people if they have past experiences or other relations with the topic. We as the interviewers don't know the people's pasts or how they feel about the topic. We also have to approach the topic as unbiased as possible. Yes, it's a big issue and we have strong feelings about it as well as others. We might not agree with what other people say; in fact, we might totally disagree with them, but we won't let that affect our project. We will present any and all information that we gather, no matter what point of view it's from.

Some frustrations could be that it'll be hard to start out our research. I think it will be difficult to get organized and get everything planned out and finally carry out the plan to get the work done. Also, since both my partner and I don't have a video camera, we'll need to somehow get one to use. It'll be especially hard to divide the work equally between me and my partner as well.

Abortion - 1st

Jake is my parner. Our topic is Abortion. We will research the controversy on whether or not abortion should be allowed, and whether or not parents should know if their child is having an abortion. First of all, we will find some background information on the issue of abortion from the internet. Then we will think of some interview questions and move into some interaction with the people around us. We will interview both kids and parents about the issue. This issue is very controverisal, but we will try our hardest to get everyone's input and try to aproach the issue from all the different point of views people may have. We will try not to be biased throughout our project and will try to gather as much information and statistics from our surveys as possible. We will also create a movie of us interviewing our peers. We will then create conclusions about the information we receive from the surveys.s